Quote:
Originally Posted by Clip-Clop
C'mon, you are a Dr. If you had to go through all kinds of govt red tape to get paid what they thought was fair for what you were doing would you? Do you let clients decide what procedures should cost? Of course not.
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Right now, human doctors have tons of staff dedicated only to cutting through the red tape of the various insurance companies. They hate it. Insurance companies dictate the actual practice of medicine - what a doctor can do for a patient - by what they will reimburse for or not. Private insurance companies dictate what tests will be reimbursed for what coded conditions, and how much that will be, and what tests will NOT be covered for certain conditions.
Medicare is a piece of cake compared to that. If doctors offices only had to deal with one insurance reimbursement agency, rather than multiple different ones, they would be thrilled!
Insurance companies only pay "what they think is fair" (or what they negotiate with the network the doctor is in)
exactly as the Medicare network does. And that nice huge profit margin goes, not to us, but to the insurance company.
Medicare costs only about 9% for administration, and that is comparable to what other first world countries cost to insure their citizens. Private insurance companies are 17% of our GDP. That's outrageous. That's why we have the most expensive health care in the world - without even having all our citizens covered, and without providing the best outcomes in the world!
Except Obamacare just changed one thing: now insurance companies must spend 80% of patient premiums on patient health care - not insurance company profit.